Nova Cep 2013

Learned of Nova Cep 2013 [discovered 10 days ago] at London Astrofest last Friday and first clear night since for 30s shot below going down to ~m17. The nova is fading and est ~m11.3[R?] from my pic against Sloan DSS. Any other obs of this object Some nice chains of stars nearby

Visually the nova is a lot fainter than your estimate. I got it at 12.6 on Feb 11.05UT and the latest CCD V observation gave 13.0 . Both determinations are based on the AAVSO sequences for the star.BrooksObs

Do I detect a hint of disapproval? I must admit I was more interested in recording the object to show on various fora than providing a V mag which mine is not as unfiltered and perhaps closer to R mag - amended above.

I did consider taking a spectrum but it was too much hassle last night. I'd already seen a 100 l/mm [probably Staranalyser] lo-res spectrum on the internet that shows the radiation was dominantly in near-IR from strong H-alpha peak and completely invisible to you eyes - hence the discrepancy perhaps. I won't blinker my camera to conform to 'visual'

My estimate of 12.7 might be totally wrong as I've measures it only to other stars in the FoV, and the closest star in brightness might be a variable. Anyhow, I've seen some interesting photographical captures of this nova where it has a somewhat redish colour. Guess that would explain the high difference between visual and photographical brightness estimates.

Attached Files

Visually the nova is a lot fainter than your estimate. I got it at 12.6 on Feb 11.05UT and the latest CCD V observation gave 13.0 . Both determinations are based on the AAVSO sequences for the star.BrooksObs

Do I detect a hint of disapproval? I must admit I was more interested in recording the object to show on various fora than providing a V mag which mine is not as unfiltered and perhaps closer to R mag - amended above.

I did consider taking a spectrum but it was too much hassle last night. I'd already seen a 100 l/mm [probably Staranalyser] lo-res spectrum on the internet that shows the radiation was dominantly in near-IR from strong H-alpha peak and completely invisible to you eyes - hence the discrepancy perhaps. I won't blinker my camera to conform to 'visual'

Hardly critical of such an observation, but the situation does point out the need for qualifying the nature of any posted magnitudes from CCD camera images (i.e. image mags are "unfiltered with an R bias").

As it stood, any less experienced visual observer looking for the nova with a modest scope after seeing the image would almost surely miss it at an actual "v" magnitude of 13.0 (as opposed to the mid 11's). As you've subsequently noted, novae often show a very strong H-alpha emission making them appear strongly red shortly after maximum, although looking white in your image, and thus appearing far brighter in unfilted CCD images than they do visually.

...novae often show a very strong H-alpha emission making them appear strongly red shortly after maximum, although looking white in your image, and thus appearing far brighter in unfilted CCD images than they do visually.BrooksObs